Boxing Brings Together Daddy Yankee And John McCain

OK, boxing is only part of the reason reggaeton superstar Daddy Yankee endorsed John McCain for president. But it’s enough for me to make a post out of it:

The unlikely partners reconnected last month when they were both in New York. “He invited me [to Washington] and I went,” says Yankee. “We talked about boxing, we’re both boxing fanatics.”

McCain hopes Yankee will give him a boost with Hispanic voters, who will be key to the outcome of several important Southwestern states. This is now the second time boxing has had a significant role in the 2008 campaign, the first being the Pavlik Bump given to Hillary Clinton when middleweight (160 lbs.) champ and local Ohio hero Kelly Pavlik endorsed her. (Rudy Giuliani’s work on behalf of heavyweight Vitali Klitschko’s mayoral campaign doesn’t count, since Giuliani was out of the race by then.)
P.S. In real life, I would favor even the retired version of Marco Antonio Barrera over Daddy Yankee by first round knockout, with my apologies to any offended partisans in the Puerto Rico/Mexico boxing rivalry.

About Tim Starks

Tim is the founder of The Queensberry Rules and co-founder of The Transnational Boxing Rankings Board (http://www.tbrb.org). He lives in Washington, D.C. He has written for the Guardian, Economist, New Republic, Chicago Tribune and more.

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